A 15-year-old girl whose father suspected she was being groomed through an online relationship was one of the 20,000 people the Foundation for Social Welfare Services helped last year.
In its annual report launched on Friday, the FSWS said it had worked 20,020 cases last year, an increase of just under 2,000 cases from 2019.
One of the agencies' success stories, saw the timely guidance and intervention from staff members manning the 179 Appoġġ hotline, which saved a 15-year-old girl whose father called helpline because he believed his child was being manipulated through an online relationship.
The client reported that his daughter told him she had fallen in love with an unknown person that she had met online and wished to travel to the UK to meet him.
The father was concerned his daughter may be communicating with someone much older than she was and did not have genuine feelings for her.
After meeting with the girl and her parents, a safer internet administrator determined the child was being groomed and made contact with Facebook, the platform on which their communication was being exchanged, with the Facebook security team discovering the individual had been targeting a number of young girls.
Facebook was then able to report the person to the UK authorities and suspend all of his accounts across all of their platforms.
“This case shows that internet abuse does not simply stop in one’s own country and that international cooperation is important to prevent abusive situations,” Appoġġ said.
Of the cases handled between January and December of last year, 7,834 were seen to by the Appoġġ agency, which provides a variety of support services, 2,115 by Child Protection Services, 2,842 were cases of children who needed to be placed in alternative care, 3,273 cases were handled by Sedqa, 2,634 by ACTS, which tackle poverty and social exclusion, while 1,322 cases were handled by the FSWS branch in Gozo.
Of all the cases handled by the FSWS in 2020, some 122 people were homeless.
Chief executive Alfred Grixti said that despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, social services proved to be resilient and kept all of its legally mandated services running throughout the year.
Grixti said that with some effort and determination, the agency was able to keep detox, alternative care, domestic violence and substance abuse services open and accessible to its clients as well as honour new commitments made in response to social challenges that arose as a result of the pandemic.
New loneliness hotline service introduced
Throughout 2020, FSWS started a food distribution system for the vulnerable, kept the 179 hotline staffed and functioning, and even introduced a new loneliness hotline service, Grixti said.
“Despite it being a long and hard year we have pulled through it and emerged stronger. Not only did we continue to deliver all our services, but we did so safely in a way that kept our services free from the virus throughout,” he said.
He added that the FSWS also launched a number of new services and initiatives in 2020, including refurbishing Sedqa’s residential service property, converted an unused detox centre into a holding facility for homeless people and inaugurated a new family services branch in Gozo.
Falzon praised the work undertaken by the agency and added that the government was committed to supporting social services even throughout the difficulties posed by the pandemic, noting that the budget allocated to the FSWS had increased from €19.7 million to €23.4 million in 2020.
He added that the phenomenon of loneliness was growing and that the foundation was taking more active steps to tackle it, with some 8,000 calls fielded through the newly launched hotline in 2020.
“It’s unfortunate and ironic I think, in an era when we have never been more connected, that people are feeling the lack of human interaction,” he said.
“We have yet to see the full scope of the long-term effects on our mental health left by the pandemic. With the number of people asking for help increasing, we are gearing up to continue helping them,” he said.